Having a think about learning to shoot - mainly as pest control and for the pot. Currently failing to find any kind of tuition that isn't plinking airguns or going for a tweed-clad jolly with the old boys.

For those REALLY sneaky bunnies!
I'm currently in Somerset, Taunton is closest town.
There is a national ladies shooting day where you can join a tweedy lot for £40, might be worth it as a taster. Either that or I got completely the wrong end of the stick!

the local gun club should be able to help for long arm training,practice and fac applications .although most are target shooting based there will be hunters among the members.

find a local keeper willing to exchange training for help feeding,hedge work etc etc

clay clubs can help with shotgun practice but shooting clays is a very different set of skills to pest control and most for the pot stuff (bunnies and deer).

shot gun will work for bunnies, foxes etc but it can be either rather cruel or very messy depending on range etc etc (enough shot through the victim to guarantee an instantly fatal head shot often leads to a very mangled dinner and possibly a dentists bill , getting close enough to a fox for a kind shotgun kill is difficult).a suitable rifle is much cleaner for most quarry ,for small stuff a springer or pcp is good , imho owt bigger than a bunny firearms are required.

When you do get out to shoot make sure it's only the stick you hold the wrong end of.

That bit I DO know

The certificate/security needed for rifles seems a bigger deal than that needed for shotguns. I do have an air rifle that I need to get practising with, but that will only do pigeons and very close, very slow rabbits.

Permissions, insurance, etc all very valid points but I think I'm a way off that skill level yet

Nowt wrong with a decent (just) sub 12ftlb airgun. No, ,it won't get you a bunny at 100m but you'd need to be a pretty good shot to do that with any firearm.

I'd practice with the airgun you have (what is it and what sight do you have?). Start with targets at 20m and work up to 50m (plenty for the airgun). Don't bother with buying targets, just draw black circles on waste cardboard and staple that to wooden stakes at range. Lying down (Prone) is generally the most accurate method and get yourself some support. A bipod is nice but a rucksack or pillowcase with some old rags / poly beads / newspaper / whatever achieves the same end.

Have a look at this. Although it's long range and rimfire, the techniques are the same regardless of range and calibre.

After you've put a few hundred pellets downrange, you should have a good idea of how accurate you and your rifle are. As long as you keep your quarry within that range then you'll be fine. OK, after a while you'll probably want to extend that range and that's the time to look at getting a licence. Having used an airgun for a while will put you in a better position come the Firearms officers question session though

A quick bit of advice on shooting law: If you trespass on land you don't have specific permission to shoot on with your airgun OR if one of your pellets goes onto that land, you are guilty of armed trespass! That's 5 years inside OK, the landowner would have to be pretty churlish to do that to anyone but it ain't worth the risk. Best to talk to some local farmers and ask if it's ok to zero your rifle initially. If they're OK with that then there's a good chance that they'll be more agreeable to letting you hunt small game / vermin later. Oh, while I think of it Google "General Licences". It's worth being aware of them

Word travels quickly in the farming community: I started off shooting rats with an airgun for a dairy farmer. He was so impressed that I actually collected the bodies for him that he told all his mates. I now have permission to shoot everything from Rats to Deer over thousands of acres and it's enabled me to get my section 1 licence

I hope this hasn't come across as patronising Feel free to PM me if you think I can help further.

The best way I can think of is finding someone who shoots locally who can show you the ropes. I know that can be hard, a bit like finding a local tradesman who's highly recommended, but it would make things much easier.

You may have a local shooting club that could offer a cheap introduction to shooting but they can be variable depending on the type of members they have (some are more aimed at pure target shooting than others). Might be worth asking as even a target shooting club will probably have a bunny or bambi bashing members.

As for what to shoot, if you have access to land with a safe backstop a simple .22LR bolt action rifle is probably one of the easiest things to shoot. Much easier than a springer air rifle IMO.